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Miranda swallowed. “You remembered.”
“Not until tonight.”
Miranda gave a nod, her lips tight. “Fevers play with the mind.”
“I didn’t deserve your help after what I did to you.”
“You didn’t deserve to die. I couldn’t let that happen.”
She was a healer, through and through, it seemed, unable to do harm even to someone who had wronged her so deeply.
Miranda knotted her hands in her lap. “When I realized the fever had affected your memory, I…I rather hoped you would not recall me. Please, Your Highness, I will not stand in the way of anything you are trying to accomplish here. Perita helped me get this position. Lady Sabina is powerful enough to hide me and kind enough to let me help my people when her duties bring her into this area. I only want to remain at her side. I will cause you no trouble, I assure you.”
“You have nothing to fear. I will never betray you again.”
Miranda kept her gaze downcast. “You need not try to win me over, Your Highness. I am already in the palm of your hand. Whatever you want in exchange for not telling the Semna about me, I’ll give it to you.”
Cassia shook her head. What a nightmare for Miranda. The bastard girl who had once ruined her life had now returned as a powerful woman, sister to the future queen. She must think Cassia an even more heartless politician than Sabina and Flavian had imagined her to be.
“After all these years,” Cassia said, “after how I treated you, there is no reason for my words to mean anything to you. But I speak the truth. I feel such deep shame.”
Miranda did not look up, as if she didn’t dare, the firelight casting deep, weary shadows on her still-young face.
“I am so sorry,” Cassia said. “If I could go back and change what I did, I would put you and your people ahead of myself. I would never do anything to lose your friendship. I know I can never undo the harm I caused, but I swear to you, here and now, I will do everything in my power to atone.”
Miranda lifted her gaze. For the first time, the fear was gone from her eyes. Cassia saw only bitterness, hardened by life.
“You are entitled to your anger,” Cassia said. “I do not expect your forgiveness, but I will endeavor to earn it.”
Cassia rose and gave Miranda not a Tenebran lady’s curtsy, but a Hesperine ambassador’s bow. For a moment, Miranda’s eyes widened in surprise. Hoping her actions spoke louder than words, Cassia left Miranda to rest from the spell and returned to Lio’s side.
“I would like an explanation later,” Solia said. “When you’re ready.”
Cassia was suddenly exhausted. She would have to tell Solia everything, in case any of her past deeds complicated politics. Lio used a bit of levitation to keep her on her feet, and this time, she didn’t protest.
Mak changed the subject. “We asked the couple if they know who’s trying to send the king encoded notes from inside Patria.”
“Unfortunately they weren’t able to tell us,” Lyros said, “but at least we know he has no spies in the village.”
“He’ll cultivate new ones,” Solia said, “and the next time he punishes this couple for resisting, it will be worse than a broken knee. I want more Hesperine wards around the cottages and fields, and Miranda must have an escort anytime she comes out this far.”
“Of course,” Mak said. “When the Collector left us that undead crow, he might as well have painted a target on her.”
At the thought of the Collector harming Miranda because of Cassia, after everything else Miranda had already suffered, Cassia felt like being sick again.
Solia’s hand tightened on the hilt of her sword, her constant reflex. “As of tonight, I am taking this village under my protection. No matter what the king or the Collector try, we will be ready.”
“As your adviser,” Lio said, “it is my duty to inform you that this could lead the king to suspect you have returned—and it might become your first declaration of war.”
The light of the hearth behind Solia glowed around her, looking for all the world like a martyr’s aura. “Then it will be the first skirmish of our war.”
MIGRATION NIGHT
33 Anthros’s Sickle, 1597 OT
CONTINGENCY PLANS
Cassia stumbled through the tunnels, her head roaring and her heart pounding. What if she fainted down here before she reached Lio? She had to keep going. Almost there. Knight whined, staying close for her to lean on.
